Category: New

The annual West Yorkshire Organic is on Saturday 9th September. Entries are judged on taste!

Full details are on their web site.

Leeds Allotments Federation took part in the 2023 RHS Festival of Flavours at Harlow Carr. This year we explored the amazing heritage passed down to us in the food crops we grow.

A story in The Guardian about another allotment site in danger of being lost to housing.

The RHS has a really helpful article about summer pruning apples and pears . 

The rainy weather in July has resulted in an early appearance of potato and tomato blight this year (2023). There is more information and advice on the Hollin Lane Allotments web site.

At this time of year parsnips are putting up flowering stems and lots of greens. Care is needed when handling these, especially on sunny days. The greens contain a chemical which can cause nasty blisters on the skin if exposed to sunlight (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsnip#Toxicity). Wear gloves, and keep your sleeves rolled down. Whatever you do, don’t attack parsnips with a strimmer!

Leeds Allotments Federation have created a “1950s to current day” show garden. It looks fantastic! Here is a preview.

I am very sorry to have to tell you that Peter Blakey died on Wednesday afternoon after a short bout of pneumonia.

Peter joined Hollin Lane Allotments in 1981 and became an important member or our community from early on. He served as Secretary and managed plot lettings for many years before passing that job on to Rosie. He finally retired from the Committee in 2014. Throughout this time, and until his death at 89 years old he quietly looked after cutting the grass on our footpaths, even when he was in considerable pain from his knees.

Peter was an excellent gardener. He won our Best Allotment competition many times, and was a formidable exhibitor of vegetables, often winning prizes at our little show, and at others around the city. I happened to raise the subject the other day and he told me that his exhibits had won 31 first prizes last year. He also contributed to the Leeds Allotments Federation’s winning exhibits at some of the Harrogate and Great Yorkshire shows. He was keen for us to improve our own exhibits and showmanship, and composed a handy guide to showing some of the main classes.

In recent weeks Peter did a huge amount of work turning over his whole plot and ridging it in readiness for the new planting season. His latest project was a massive hot bed – a pit filled with hot strawy manure with a cold frame over it to provide summery heat for growing in cold weather. Not being able to see the conclusion of this experiment will be just one of many reasons I mourn his passing.

Peter was always looking for new ways to improve things – not just his own gardening, but the state of Hollin Lane Allotments as a whole. He loved being here, and did much to make it the happy place it is. We will miss him hugely.

I am sure you will all join me in extending our sympathy to Peter’s wife Kathryn and their family.

Winter pruning of apples and pears is best done while the trees are dormant, usually between November and early March in the UK. Here are three useful articles from the RHS that explain what to do for different types of pruning:

• For young standard or bush-trained trees
• Regulated pruning to keep trees from getting too big
• For renovating old or neglected trees

Restricted forms like cordons and espaliers are managed by summer pruning.